Food Trip Friday: Bopha Titanic Restaurant

Posted by Lui on Jan 27, 2012 | 3 comments

Bopha Titanic Restaurant along Sisowath Quay, Phnom Penh is popular with the tourist crowd. And its not really that surprising, it has great location – riverside, extensive menu (Khmer, Thai, and western fares) and the place is spacious.

We love going there for Khmer food, and just to relax and take in the river breeze. Hubby and I both like Khmer and Thai food, while the kiddo prefers pastas and we get all of this in one place. We also love the ambiance, the attentive staff and of course, the food is yummy. Prices are mid-range.

Here’s what we had last time we went there. Khmer Seafood Ma-am Stew- I can’t get enough of this! Its sooo delicious and you’d need unlimited servings of rice with this one. They serve this with lots of veggies to tame the strong salty flavor.

We also had seafood glass noodles which was also great but my camera’s battery died on me so no photos of that..The kiddo as usual ordered her Pasta Bolognese with Garlic Bread. Yum. And the serving is huge.

I’m sooo looking forward to going back there again. Soon.

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Manila-Siem Reap Direct Flights via Cebu Pacific Air

Posted by Lui on Jan 26, 2012 | 2 comments

Here’s something we’ve been waiting for quite sometime already, after the two countries have signed flight deals since 2009!  Direct flights from the Philippines to Cambodia is finally here! Philippine budget carrier Cebu Pacific Air will commence flights from Manila-Siem Reap and vice versa from April 19, 2012!

Visiting Angkor Wat is now much easier and much much cheaper for Pinoy folks. And what’s even better is that Cebu Pacific Air is currently holding a seat sale till January 29, 2012, so hurry and grab your really cheap fares on this seat sale. I think booking for Cambodia flights commences tomorrow, January 27th @ Cebu Pacific Air. You can also check out Cebu Pacific’s Facebook Page for promo updates.

I’ve checked the schedules and for now the airline is flying to Siem Reap on Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday. Flight times would 19:50  - 21:30 for Manila-Siem Reap and 22:30 – 02:10 for Siem Reap-Manila. That’s about 2 hrs and 40 mins of flying, (Cambodia being 1 hr behind Manila time)!

This news made my day. Lol. I’ve been wishing for this to happen since… well ever since. And now if only Cebu Pacific flies to direct to Phnom Penh too. I know, tourists are mostly after Angkor Wat in Siem Reap but still, majority of Filipino expats reside here and Phnom Penh is increasingly getting a part  in the tourist trail..so Cebu Pacific, pretty please add Phnom Penh to your destinations soon..

Living in Phnom Penh: Randomeness #3

Posted by Lui on Jan 26, 2012 | 1 comment

Hey, how was your Chinese New Year celebrations? Ours was really fun and merry with lots of food involved. Lol. Khmer-Chinese really celebrate the lunar new year with much fervor. Even local Khmers are now joining in with the festivities! While this is not an official holiday, well, people do take a break. Lots of shops and businesses are closed for three days. So the cities empty out and a lot of people go to provinces to just relax and have a bit of downtime.

Chinese lanterns @ Koh Pich (Diamond Island) Park

As for us, we observed the usual Chinese rituals, offering food, incense and prayers to departed ancestors. Then the next few days were spent eating, playing cards, spending time with the whole clan and it was capped with a road trip.

Now, I’m pretty much tired but revved up. I feel like I’m all in good mood and hearing good music. I guess that little break has done wonders to my mind set.

The food and celebration though has wreaked havoc on my diet so I started today doing vigorous high impact aerobic exercises. I feel really good afterwards and its like my own body metronomes are all in tune and working! And the good news is that when I checked the weighing scale..I didn’t gain any weight. Uh, thank God for healthy Chinese food and the workouts. Lol.

Food Trip Friday: Cookin’ Banh Chao

Posted by Lui on Jan 20, 2012 | 6 comments

Were lucky our Khmer neighbors are foodies too. They love doing cook outs during weekends and inviting us too. Last week was really interesting coz they were making Banh Chao (Banh Xeo in Vietnamese). This is a Vietnamese dish of rice flour crepes with assorted fillings. Khmers have adopted this dish and their version is one of my favorite Cambodian foods.

Khmer version has some additions like shredded coconut, flaked crabs and more assortment of greens to be eaten with it. The sauce is also slightly more ‘peanut-y’.

I took some pics while they were cooking…They usually cook this over charcoal and it smells heavenly. And it was super yummy. And I ate more than three servings lol. They must think I haven’ t eaten for weeks but it was that good.

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A Visit to Wat Vihear Sour in Prey Veng

Posted by Lui on Jan 19, 2012 | 2 comments

Prey Veng is a Cambodian province not usually mentioned in tourist guides, and for some reason places like these appeal more to me. So when my sister-in-law suggested we go there, visit some family friends and also visit Wat Vihear Sour, a well known pagoda, I was all set to tag along. We also heard that in this pagoda, there is one temple that is home to a deity, said to be generous in granting wishes of good luck, wealth and specially fertility. I think this is one of the reasons why my in-laws wanted to make the trip. My younger brother-in-law and his wife have been trying for a baby for some years already and now they wanted to make an offering in that pagoda and ask for help to make their wish come true.

When I heard about this I was mighty curious. I’m not Buddhist but that doesn’t mean I don’t try to learn more or understand more of their beliefs. I always try to keep an open mind about these things and who knows if your wish can be granted. We’ve also been talking about having a second child, with the kiddo very eager to wear her little nurse uniform and be a ‘baby sitter’. Lol. So it wouldn’t hurt if we pray for one while we are there. And besides this reason, drives to Cambodian provinces is always delightful for me. You never know what you’ll see or encounter, aside from the lush, almost undisturbed countryside.

We left about 9 am and the drive was really pleasant. Just under 2 hrs with the roads all new and paved. To say that it was a picturesque drive would be an understatement. Most of  the places around Phnom Penh are vast and unpopulated. Most are farmlands. Which makes me realize that Cambodia really has a smaller population compared to other places or perhaps majority are just concentrated on urban areas.  Anyway, I’ll let the pics tell my story now…

Wat Vihear Sour has this huge ‘lake’..

This pagoda complex is huge and has several temples you can offer prayers and receive blessings. One can offer food, flowers, incense. In this pagoda you can also get some blessed water and wash your face with it for good luck.

Gong Xi Fa Cai From Phnom Penh!

Posted by Lui on Jan 19, 2012 | 1 comment

Everybody (well, almost everybody that is, hehe) is in a frenzy. The streets are getting clogged, the markets are getting more jampacked (if they could get more jampacked) and I keep seeing those pretty red lanterns on a lot of houses and shops. Well, Cambodia is celebrating along with Chinese! The Chinese New Year is one of the biggest festive events here in Cambodia, and while its not an official holiday, the rest of the Khmers are all celebrating this. I think this comes second to Khmer New Year in terms of  their celebratory fervor. So now, we’re all getting ready to usher in the year of the dragon!

As for me, I’m leaving all the cooking to my mother-in-law. Hahaha. I’m a lucky, lucky girl!  So it’ll all just be eating, offerings, leisure time for the weekend. On another note, I dread the havoc the holidays will wreak on my diet. I guess it’s time to bring out the plus size dresses or maybe I should be doing more intense exercises now to counter the effect of too much eating? Or maybe I should just stick to this particular favorite of mine…sesame seed snacks! Hahaha.

Enough of my blabbing. I just wanna wish everyone, good health and wealth for the coming new year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Site Spotlight: Exposix

Posted by Lui on Jan 19, 2012 | 1 comment

I feel like I’ve just crawled out of some cave. Lol. You I frequently get this feeling whenever I focus on something and not get myself update with what’s going on. I’ve been experimenting with building some other websites (yes! not blogs this time) and also dabbling on digital scrapbooking on my free time that I was seriously out of touch with what’s going on, what’s the news, what’s the latest. I guess I have a lot to keep up on.

Now that I’m out of the ‘cave’ for awhile I took the time out to check out new websites, new startup ideas. And frankly I got overwhelmed. It seems like the net is sprouting new things on a millisecond rate and its hard to keep up. One thing I have noticed aside from social networking still being pretty much ruling every body else’s life, another popular web idea is the Q & A sharing type of site. One very promising site on this category is Exposix.com, with a very catchy slogan, “share anything, expose everything’. Now wouldn’t that catch everyone’s interest?

Exposix is a Questions and Answers kind of website, think like Yahoo Answers, Ask.com, Aardvark etc. A site where you can ask and answer questions all for free. It’s pretty interesting and I signed up to see what goes on in it. What makes Exposix a bit different is their Debates. I love this little feature where you can raise a question or issue and get everybody else’s opinion on it. It’s a great way to interact with others and also know the ‘pulse’ of regular folks.

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